Once again, our people working overseas are in harm's way as conflict erupts in the Middle East between Iran and the US-Israel partnership in war mongering. Our OFVVs always end up as collateral damage in political hostilities we have nothing to do with, simply because they happen to be caught in the crossfire of warring parties in some hot spot somewhere in the world.

We have come to accept this as normal. Our people are exported as commodities, along with our bananas and pineapples. Desperate to feed their families, our people would rather stay on and brave getting maimed or killed by bombs and missiles

instead of opting for repatriation. We have gotten used to seeing them come home in a coffin.

Years back, in the early 70's, there was much internal debate in the Ministry of Labor then on whether it was right to send workers as construction crews in Saudi Arabia. This was the beginning of this strange policy of sending people abroad to earn dollars for the country. It was argued that this was a temporary measure meant to mop up our labor surplus. Once the country is on the roll, there won't be any need to send a single worker abroad.

Fast forward to this time. The policy has become permanent, cast in stone. Poverty has driven at least twelve million abroad to eke out a living. Like the Gibeonites, we have become the 'hewers of wood and drawers of water' for the rest of the world. With a government that is utterly corrupt and bereft of economic imagination, our people take things into their hands and risk facing all possible dangers in inhospitable lands just to be able to live. Bahala na, they say.

Such risk-taking pays off anyway. At least, to those who hail them as 'bayani' because they bring in USD39.62 billion—at last count into the country's bankrupt coffers. Yet studies show that among the countries sending migrant workers, our people have not benefited much, as measured by long-term economic lift. And the fallout on family wellness has been horrendous.

What does Scripture say to this wholesale export of our people?

In Isaiah's vision of the future, workers will

". . build houses and dwell in them ; they will plant vineyards and eat

their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or

plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of

my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands."

(Isaiah 65.27-22)

The imagery is of a people who enjoy the fruit of their labor. They are not just construction workers; they live in the houses they build. They have a settled existence and have enough land to plant and eat their own food; they do not just produce export crops for the consumption of global others. They will live long and sustainable lives, enjoying the work of their hands.

This challenges us to build an economy where people stay rooted in our own land, not migrants forced to work elsewhere. It means social justice, people owning their own land and living in their own houses, reaping the rewards of their labor and not working at a pittance for others. The society envisioned is one of long term health and wellness, and joy over whatever it is that we do with our hands.

This is my prayer for our people, that they could come home and settle in the places where they truly belong.

Melba Padilla Maggay, Ph.D.